The Second Quest, Hero Mode or Master Mode, is a recurring aspect in the Legend of Zelda series. It allows the player to start the designated game again with several differences once they have completed it once.

Contents

Appearances

The Second Quest can be accessed by finishing the game once or by entering "ZELDA" as the player's name when creating a new file. In the Second Quest, all dungeons are rearranged and often found in different locations. The items acquired in each dungeon are also different and usually feature multiple boss enemies per dungeon.

The Second Quest came out of a design mistake by Takashi Tezuka in which he only used half of the available memory for the dungeons. Instead of redoing the game, more dungeons were made to fill the other half of the memory. It was decided to make the second set of dungeons part of a second quest at the suggestion of Shigeru Miyamoto.

After finishing the game once, the player can start the Second Quest. Unlike The Legend of Zelda, the enemies and dungeons remain the same. However, in the Second Quest, Link retains all the level ups and magic spells he had when he finished the first quest. All weapons must be re-obtained, and all palaces must be beaten again to access the Great Palace.

After finishing a Linked Game and receiving the Hero's Secret, a Second Quest can be started in either game. The new game has a few changes, the most notable being that Link begins the game with the unappraised Victory Ring. On the Name Registration screen when the game begins, the file will also have the Triforce next to it.

The Return Linked game allows Link to experience the original game without the altered storyline, but with the addition of the main Linked Game's items and upgrade.

After finishing the game once, the player can start the Second Quest. Unlike the Second Quest of The Legend of Zelda, all dungeon designs and locations remain unchanged. Instead, there are many differences that do not affect gameplay, but do change the appearances of some characters and other subtle differences.

Link will start with the Deluxe Picto Box, as long as he obtained the Picto Box during the first playthrough. Any pictographs taken with the Picto Box or Deluxe Picto Box are carried over from the first quest.

Link is able to wear his blue and orange clothes for the entirety of the game, never changing into the traditional Hero's Clothes. This is explained in the game as Link having obtained invisible clothing. Because of this, all text involving his clothes is changed.

All text that was spoken in Hylian in the first quest is translated for the second time around, although while the player will read English, Link will not understand Ancient Hylian.

Aryll's pirate outfit, which she obtained in the first play-through, is worn by her throughout the Second Quest.

The locations of sunken treasure, obtained with Treasure Charts, change. In the second quest, the treasure is usually further away from islands, so less of the island is visible on the Treasure Chart. This makes identifying the island from the map somewhat more difficult, as several islands look similar when only a small part is visible.

After finishing the game once, the game can be played again in Hero Mode. Doing so overwrites the save file, so the save data must be copied before initiating the final battle if the current progress is to be kept. Hero Mode affects gameplay in several ways:

All bosses in Lightning Round are unlocked, including Demise, upon healing Lanayru, and the time taken is carried over from the previous save file.

When Link is swimming, his air supply drains twice as fast.

Once Hero Mode has been cleared, the player will be given the option to save the game; if the file is loaded at a later point in time, the game will start just before the final battle. Once progress has been saved, the save file is marked with a golden Triforce.

After completing the game once, players will have access to Hero Mode. Hearts still drop as normal, but enemies (including Shadow Link) will deal four times as much damage. Other than that, there are only two changes to Hero Mode: Link will be able to find Ravio's Journal in the vacant house in Lorule, and during the ending when Link returns the Master Sword to the Lost Woods, Zelda and the Seven Sages accompany him.

The Master Mode can be unlocked from the DLC Pack 1 "Master Trials" of Breath of the Wild. The levels of all enemies except dungeon bosses and guardians have ranked up. Red types become blue, blue types become black, etc. Enemies that don't normally upgrade(Hinox, Wizzrobes, and Guardian Scouts) will be affected due to possessing their own tiers, while the base tiers of all affected enemies have permanent locations to ensure their addition to the Hyrule Compendium is possible, provided the player knows where they're located. Four new golden variants have been introduced, the Gold Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos and Lynels, as well as the new Sky Octoroks. At lakes, rivers, ravines and towers, floating platforms supported by said Octoroks appear, and some of them have chests containing equipment or gems.